Alan: If Papa Bush or Baby Bush had achieved this one goal, the GOP would tout the accomplishment as "statesmanship of the highest order." As it is, the noise machine will be in full operation by tomorrow's news cycle, representing the new agreement as an apocalyptic calamity for Israel.
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BREAKING NEWS: A historic agreement has been reached between Iran and six world powers on limits to Iran’s nuclear program, a European Union official has confirmed.
“We have reached agreement between E3+3 and Iran,” an EU spokesman said in Twitter posting.
This story will be updated
GENEVA — Iran and world powers seeking a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program remained stuck Saturday on the same complex questions that dashed earlier talks, despite strong signs that diplomats on all sides had come to this round expecting success.
Negotiations in this Swiss city ran into the late evening, with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, the European Union and the United States huddled in a hotel conference room. Several of the diplomats met earlier in the day with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who told reporters that the parties remained divided on key details of the six-month trial deal.
“It is still too early to say if there will be a final agreement,” Zarif said.
The talks remained snarled despite the last-minute intervention of Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who flew to Geneva for the second time in two weeks to try to break the impasse. The Obama administration has been seeking to quickly finalize an agreement in the face of threats by Congress to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran.
The marathon discussions with Iran, which extended into an unscheduled fourth day, were described by Western diplomats as “very difficult” and “intense.” Several officials sought to lower expectations that a resolution could be reached before Sunday, when Kerry and the other foreign ministers were due to depart.
Kerry, Zarif and the lead E.U. negotiator, Catherine Ashton, met late Saturday, but the session ended with no announcement of progress. Instead, Iran’s deputy foreign minister hardened his country’s position.
Although “98 percent” of the deal is done, Iran can accept no agreement that does not recognize what it calls its uranium enrichment rights, Abbas Araghchi told reporters.
“Any agreement without recognizing Iran’s right to enrich, practically and verbally, will be unacceptable for Tehran,” Araghchi said, according to Reuters.
Araghchi and Zarif have insisted that the deal hinges on international recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium, a matter of deep national pride.
The proposed deal offered to Iran would reportedly allow limited uranium enrichment, although under tight restrictions and heavy international monitoring. But Western officials have balked at recognizing a legal “right” to uranium enrichment, hoping instead to craft language in the final agreement that acknowledges the right of all countries to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Zarif appeared to endorse that approach publicly last week.
The sides also continued to haggle over details of the limited sanctions relief to be offered to Iran in return for scaling back its nuclear program, diplomats said. The relief would reportedly include freeing up a small portion of Iran’s overseas currency accounts and easing other trade restrictions.